Night Terrors
by DramaticSheep
Summary: Ron wakes Hermione from a nightmare. Set the night after Malfoy Manor events. One Shot. Shell Cottage. Hope you enjoy - please leave feedback if you can!


Night Terrors

A/N : One shot missing moment from Shell Cottage (the night after the events of Malfoy Manor)

Disclaimer : I don't own Harry Potter

It was well past midnight, not a cloud in the sky outside the cottage, representing a beautifully moon lit sky and a faint dusting of stars which glowed together peacefully. The moonlight bore down on the earth lightly illuminating the freshly dug grave of Dobby the house elf, the sounds of the lapping sea echoed around in the open space. The cottage itself was a work of art, beautifully designed, doused with shells here, there and everywhere. Not a light was on in the small cottage, apart from one.

Ronald Weasley sat in one of the small bedrooms of the cottage, cosy but very impersonal. The room was lit only by candlelight. He sat on a wooden chair which was positioned right next to the single bed, which was occupied by Hermione, who was sleeping quite soundly for the moment, which made Ron feel content.

Being stuck in that cellar had made Ron realize that things had to change.

He'd danced around his feelings for Hermione for quite a while now, and the things which had taken place at Malfoy Manor had shown him just how serious their situation was; how just one wrong move could result in their deaths, how close he had come to losing Hermione forever. The feeling had engulfed him completely, if she died, how was she to ever know how he truly felt about her? He had been so determined to get out of that cellar that these thoughts hadn't actually occurred to him until they had reached safety.

Their escape however, had not been free of charge, they had lost the elf. This fact did upset him greatly, he was eternally grateful to Dobby, were it not for him, none of them would have survived, and he was plagued with guilt that he had never made much of an effort with him in the past. For the first time in his life, Ron Weasley understood Hermione's point of view on the mistreatment of house elves.

Hermione had begun to stir in her sleep, Ron shifted forwards on his chair, leaning in close to her, perhaps she was having a nightmare? Would waking her up be the kindest thing for him to do at the moment? He wasn't sure. Eventually he decided to leave her be, she began to stir again, he would wake her.

This scene was very familiar to him, it seemed only yesterday that he had been borrowing Harry's invisibility cloak and sneaking up to the hospital wing to visit her in the dead of night during their second year at school. Of course Hermione had no recollection of this, being petrified at the time, but Ron remembered it so clearly in his mind, he remembered the awful feeling when McGonagall had told them that Hermione had been petrified, it felt like a brick had slid down his throat and sat at a horrible angle in his stomach. Sneaking up to the hospital wing helped this a bit, but not much.

When he'd finally managed to break up with Lavender, Ron had made it his personal goal to reveal his true feelings to Hermione; however he had danced around the idea for quite a while. He'd received an interesting book from his brothers for his seventeenth birthday, which he had not been able to look at properly until quite a while later, due to his poisoning. He had to admit, the book did give very clear and useful ideas, such as complementing and things like that, but Ron knew that it wasn't enough. Hermione _had _noticed Ron's sudden interest in whatever she was doing, complementing her, telling her she looked nice, admiring her work, but Ron was sure that in order for her to truly understand, he would have to tell her how he felt, and the idea terrified him, mostly because of his fear of rejection, if she admitted that she didn't like him in that way, he would be crushed, however if she admitted that she did like him, it may well be the best thing he'd ever do.

And so Ron sat, twiddling his thumbs on his uncomfortable wooden chair, debating ideas, ways of bring up the subject with Hermione, after their narrow escape, Ron had realised just how precious every moment was, and he'd really need to get a move on.

About half an hour later Ron was pulled out of his deep pool of thoughts, in which he had been fully submerged, when Hermione began to stir again. He wondered again whether he should wake her, she did not look peaceful, he was ninety per cent sure that she may be having a nightmare. After the torture she had endured yesterday, how could she not be? Bellatrix had tortured her on and off for what must have been perhaps twenty minutes, Hermione was lucky to still have her sanity.

He jumped as Hermione let out a terrible scream out of nowhere, he felt like he was back in the cellar at the manor, but then he took a deep breath to calm himself, stood up from his chair and slowly tried to shake her shoulder.

"Hermione." He said quietly, shaking her a little.

Hermione was doing more than stirring now, she was thrashing about on the bed, screaming as though some invisible monster was attacking her, Ron know that in her dreams she was back at the manor, taking the awful pain that Bellatrix was inflicting upon her once again.

"Hermione." He said more firmly and loudly, pushing her a little harder, he noticed the few stray tears that had begun to fall down her face.

"Come on Hermione, wake up." He said, and she gasped as her eyes flew open and darted everywhere around the room, until they saw Ron staring down at her. She was trembling quite terribly, holding on to Ron's arm, she sat up on the bed and with her free hand, wiped the tears off of her face.

"I'm sorry." She stammered, "Did I wake you?"

Ron smiled feebly.

"Not really, was awake, I ran in when I heard you screaming." He quickly lied.

"Thank you for waking me up." She said, as she shivered and pulled the bedcovers up to her small body.

"S'fine." Ron said, and swayed a little on the spot. "Do you err… need to talk about it?" he asked quietly. Hermione shook her head.

"I don't think I could even begin to…" She said.

"That's fine, don't worry about it." Ron said, he knew that one day she'd open up about it. "You should get back to sleep, you've had a rough day."

"I- I'll try." She said weakly. Ron began to turn and head for the bedroom door.

"Ron." She called after him, and he stopped dead in his tracks, turned around in a second to face her.

"Yeah?" he asked.

"Will you stay with me until I fall asleep?" She asked. "I don't want to be alone."

Ron smiled and sat down on the wooden chair beside the bed once more. Hermione lay down in the bed and got comfortable.

"Thank you, it means a lot." Said Hermione.

"Anytime." Said Ron, who blew out the burning candle that was resting on the bedside table.

"Goodnight." He said to her.

"Goodnight Ron." Hermione said.


End file.
